Sherman is the second Seahawk to ever grace the cover of the game, joining running back Shaun Alexander, who did the honors for the 2007 game following Seattle’s only other Super Bowl trip in 2006 (the year listed on the game is a year ahead of the season to be played).

While Seahawks fans may worry about the so-called Madden Curse — a history of troubling events that tend to occur to those on the cover — Sherman apparently has no such concerns, having several times in recent days lobbied for votes on his Twitter page:

As Greenberg laid out, it is true that 14 of the 16 players featured have had either injuries or a sub-par season in the year they graced the cover.

But as Greenberg also notes, injuries are a part of the game. So, too, is regressing to the mean. Players who were picked to be on the cover inevitably had career seasons in which everything went right — including staying healthy — something that rarely happens on a consistent basis in football.

Sherman, though, could be in a good situation to buck the trend. A few of the high-profile curse-sufferers were running backs, a position more prone to injury than cornerback. Sherman also is just entering the prime of his career and with a team around him as good as any in the NFL (Peyton Hillis, in retrospect, seems to have had no chance).

In that sense, Sherman may be the best test yet of whether there really is a Madden Curse. Undoubtedly he’s eager for the chance.